On the verge of being fired, a corrupt customs official finds a haul of
drugs and teams up with a vicious gangster to become the most powerful
crime partnership in Busan.

Nameless Gangster aka Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, is a film written and directed by Yun Jong-bin. It is based on true events, specifically the 1990 government crackdown on organized crime ,and chronicles the story of a corrupt port customs inspector turned would-be gangster in 1980s Busan.

It stars Choi Min-sik (Oldboy, I Saw the Devil), in an immensely entertaining performance as the unlikeliest of kingpins. Ik-hyun, an inept overweight middle-aged civil servant who basically stumbles and bumbles his way into the criminal underworld and makes his way to the top through sheer luck and circumstance. He's a strange and for the most part deplorable character. A corrupt loud-mouth who is constantly in over his head, but Choi's brilliant acting here makes him fascinating. It's larger than life and sometimes over the top, but there is a certain charismatic edge to his performance that makes the character so watchable.

A random discovery of a shipment of drugs, and a chance meeting with rising gang leader Hyung-bae (played by Ha Jung-woo with an effortless cool), who happens to be a distant relative, sets the stage for a smartly written screenplay ripped right out of the Martin Scorsese mobster movie manual. Complete with the same slick atmosphere, attention to period detail, plenty of brutal violence (though not as much as you may expect from a South Korean production), just enough character depth to make otherwise detestable criminal low-lives interesting, and even a soundtrack that would fit right into a Sicilian crime epic.

Yun Jong-bin's direction works well here, and with a keen sense of pacing, he manages to make a complex and fragmented narrative which spans a couple decades and jumps back and forth through time, surprisingly easy to follow. Also importantly, although it runs for two and a quarter hours, it never feels like a long film, nor does it ever feel like time is passing by too quickly either.

It's perhaps not the most original stories around, the language and culture may be different, but the situations and motivations are all the same. However, it's still highly captivating, has great acting, and is packed with all the necessary elements expected from the genre. If you're looking for a well executed take on the age old mob crime thriller, look no further than this.

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